Gower Climbing Festival 2009

Thanks to all who came — see you again next year!

Note: The information
here is about the September 2009 festival, but we've kept it online
so that you can find out about the events that took place. For information about
future festivals please see the main Gower Climbing Festival website.

Gower Power!

The Gower Climbing Festival is an opportunity for you to come and
experience what the Gower peninsula has to offer on its plentiful
limestone cliffs and beautiful beaches. There's plenty of climbing
for everyone, with trad routes ranging from Diffs to the high Extremes,
sport routes from Fr6a+ to Fr8a, and a handful of bouldering areas too.

The 2009 festival was a great success, with plenty of visitors from
all over the UK joining us for the weekend of 4th-6th September 2009.
We've put some of the best pictures from the event in the galleries
below, and also got a copy of the
feature article in the BMC's
Summit magazine
available for you to download.

What did we get up to?

For more information about the locations and events featured in the 2009
festival, please see the
festival information page.
If you just want to see for yourself, the photos below should illustrate!

Climbing

Camping

Relaxing

Alternatively, thanks to Tom Woodrow of Geek Productions,
you can watch the official festival video
to see some of the highlights of the weekend:

Where can I climb on Gower?

The crags detailed below are a selection of the great climbing in
the area. For those wishing to explore more of Gower and other regions
of South Wales there's the definitive guidebook from the South
Wales Mountaineering Club, available from all good guidebook stockists.
Alternatively, the SWMC wiki
has details for most crags in the surrounding area. For general information,
the-gower.com
is a useful tourist information resource.

Selected climbing areas

Fall Bay

This area contains some of the most popular routes on Gower,
and you could easily spend the entire weekend here. King
Wall is a popular crag with numerous routes in the Diff
to VS range. Above this tidal crag is Lewes Castle,
a slightly tougher affair with most grades around VS and HVS and
a few low Extremes.

Yellow Wall

Gower's showcase crag, with several serious trad undertakings.
With the tides right all weekend, abseil in and get on the likes
of Muppet Show, Transformer, or the crag's
namesake: Yellow Wall.

Juniper Wall

One of the tallest crags on Gower, with a collection of great
VSs, and a contender for one of the best HVSs on Gower: Assassin.

Boiler Slab

This easy-angled limestone slab is great for novices and
beginners, with lots of routes in the VS to E2 range, and a handful
of Severes. At low tide the sea reveals rock pools below the crag,
great to cool off in and explore.

Oxwich

If tough sport is why you've ventured onto Gower then head for
Oxwich, set near some of the best panoramic views on Gower.
Home to a classic Fr6c, Kissin' the Pink, and many more
routes from Fr7a upwards.

Three Cliffs

Probably the most well known area of Gower, and the location
of one of its most well known routes: Scavenger. With
trad mainly in the lower grades, the routes are generally slabby
affairs, though for the more adventurous there's Under Milkwood.

Foxhole Cove

Home of sport routes from Fr6a+ to Fr8a, with the majority of
grades around 7a (14 routes total). Recently re-geared by local
climbers funded by the bolt fund, arguably the premier sport
crag on Gower.

Location

Rhossili, Gower Peninsula, South Wales — see the map
and events from the festival information page.